Supreme Court to Center: Appointment of judges stuck by what authority?

The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Centre and fined it Rs 25,000 for failing to respond to a petition that said haphazard parking along the highways was one of the major causes of fatal accidents.

“The collegium has cleared 75 names of high court judges (for transfer/ appointment) but they have not been approved”. A memorandum of procedure for appointments is still in the process of being drafted as there has been no consensus on the provisions. As the CJI said, high courts are functioning at 40 per cent of their sanctioned strength, and people are having to spend years in jail without trial for want of judges.

Pointing out that with four million cases and High Courts functioning at 44.30% of the sanctioned strength of judges, Chief Justice Thakur asked Attorney General Rohatgi to immediately address the issue as “whole situation is getting very hard”. “There has to be some accountability”.

It is telling that a standoff between the judiciary and the executive should play out in open court, with the Chief Justice of India presiding, days before Independence Day. The Chief Justice of India, T. S. Thakur has demanded that the Attorney General, Mukul Rohatgi provide an answer to the above questions, on behalf of the Government, within four weeks.

“If there is problem with regard to any name, please sent the file back to us (for reconsideration)”, it said.

Rahul Gandhi’s tweet was in context of the stern message that the Supreme Court delivered to the central government over the non-execution of collegium’s decision to transfer and appoint Chief Justices and judges in High Courts. You (Centre) have not filed a counter affidavit for more than a year.

In practical terms, the high courts are now operating with 44.3% vacancies; pendency has risen to four million cases. It was a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court which, in the NJAC case, ordered the government to draft a new MoP in consultation with the SC collegium. But, at the same time, it has said that the CJI and the Collegium can decide on whom to include in such a system.